Dresden 2006 – scientific programme
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MA: Magnetismus
MA 35: Magnetic Thin Films V
MA 35.7: Talk
Friday, March 31, 2006, 12:15–12:30, HSZ 03
Novel magnetic structure in the Fe monolayer on Ir(111) — •Kirsten von Bergmann1, Stefan Heinze1, Matthias Bode1, Elena Y. Vedmedenko1, Gustav Bihlmayer2, Stefan Blügel2, and Roland Wiesendanger1 — 1Institute of Applied Physics, University of Hamburg, Germany — 2Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
The magnetic properties of thin films have been in the focus of recent research. Up to now only two different magnetic ground states of homoatomic monolayers have been found experimentally: while the ferromagnetic state is accessible by various surface sensitive techniques it is much more challenging to prove antiferromagnetic order such as the c(2 × 2)-antiferromagnetic state [1,2].
Using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy we have observed a much more complex magnetic structure in the pseudomorphic Fe monolayer on Ir(111). The two-dimensional magnetic unit cell is of nanometer-size and the shape is nearly square with one diagonal along a close-packed row of the hexagonal atom arrangement. This symmetry relation gives rise to three rotational domains, all of which are observed experimentally. First-principles calculations verify that the magnetic state proposed on the basis of the experimental data is indeed lower in energy than the ferromagnetic state and indicate that the unusual magnetic structure is induced by the strong Fe-Ir hybridization.
[1] S. Heinze et al., Science 288, 1805 (2000).
[2] A. Kubetzka et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 087204 (2005).